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BY GEORGE LEOPOLD
Cyber defense technologies are
going mobile in an attempt to
protect autonomous ground ve-
hicles from cyber attacks.
Mission Secure Inc. said it is launch-
ing a pilot project along with Perrone
Robotics Inc. and the University of Vir-
ginia’s Department of Systems and In-
formation Engineering to demonstrate
cyber defenses for autonomous ground
vehicles.
The military has extensive plans for
autonomous ground vehicles, and has
tested autonomous convoys in a vari-
ety of setting. But the demonstrations
could also have application in the com-
mercial sector as autonomous vehicle
projects—i.e. self-driving cars—spon-
sored by Google and others gain mo-
mentum.
The partners said the pilot project
would focus on vulnerable automation
systems and software used to provide
basic functionality in driverless ground
vehicles.
With Defense Department backing,
Mission Secure, of Charlottesville, Va.,
and the University of Virginia started by
developing a proprietary methodology
for identifying the most effective and
easiest ways to launch cyberattacks on
autonomous systems. Then in response,
they developed proprietary software
and hardware tools to evaluate possible
defenses against the most likely attacks.
The demonstration will simulate
cyberattack scenarios against onboard
control systems carried in an autono-
mous ground vehicle dubbed “Tommy
Jr.” that was originally fielded in the
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency’s 2007 Urban Challenge, a
competition for driverless vehicles in
city settings intended to push autono-
mous vehicle technology forward.
The goal of the pilot program is to
demonstrate how to identify cyber
threats that could easily hack a vehicle’s
critical control systems. That informa-
tion would be used to improve detec-
tion schemes and cyber defenses.
The cyber assessment for ground
vehicles follows an earlier cyber evalu-
ation of autonomous air vehicles. The
partners said the result of the ground
vehicle demonstration also could be
used to develop cyber defenses for
commercial vehicles and critical infra-
structure.
Perrone Robotics, developer of an
autonomous robotics software platform
used in autonomous ground vehicles,
also has worked with the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety and the
Vehicle Research Center. It’s “Tommy”
autonomous vehicles were fielded in
the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and
the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.
During the upcoming demonstra-
tions, Mission Secure’s cyber security
technology will be used to monitor, de-
tect and counter various cyber attack
scenarios. n
DOD funds pilot to develop cyber
defenses for driverless vehicles
CYBERDEFENSE
24 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 | DefenseSystems.com
BY MARK POMERLEAU
Effective cyber defense has never
been more sought after, with
leaders in the public and private
sectors seeking more efficient and ro-
bust methods to protect sensitive data.
One key to building proficient cyber
defenses is using metrics to grasp what
happens and how breaches and threats
work. The Army is lending a hand on
this front, releasing a forensic analysis
code called Dshell, which it has used for
five years to help understand compro-
mises of Defense Department networks,
to the public-access site GitHub.
Within about a month of when the
Army Research Laboratory released
a version of Dshell to GitHub in De-
cember, it was viewed more than 2,000
times, according ARL. Dshell allows us-
ers to evaluate and develop parameters
specific to their own data breaches.
Key features of the tool include ro-
bust stream reassembly, IPv4 and IPv6
support, custom output handlers and
chainable decoders.
“Outside of government there are a
wide variety of cyber threats that are
similar to what we face here,” said Wil-
liam Glodek, ARL’s network security
branch chief. “Dshell can help facilitate
the transition of knowledge and under-
standing to our partners in academia
and industry who face the same prob-
lems.”
For the Army, releasing the data to
the public not only bolsters transpar-
ency and helps other organizations
with forensic analysis, but it could allow
outside developers to provide the Army
with tips to improve the Dshell tool. n
Army goes open source with
forensic analysis tool
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